Topic > MySpace

“We’re the bold company,” CEO Tim Vanderhook said, “the one who acquired MySpace when no one else would.” Now, he added, “we are going to dominate the ad industry by being the first to market with the advertising cloud” so that, for instance, an ad viewing can be tracked to an in-store sale.

Shockingly, most people didn’t want a social network in their email inbox, so the experiment that consisted of Google taking your inbox and insta-poofing a social network into sudden awkward existence never had a prayer of upsetting Facebook, Twitter, or even MySpace.

Don’t worry, just because you didn’t get to watch a VentureBeat reporter on a blind date, or hear our interview with a legendary game developer doesn’t mean you’re not cool. You just can’t sit at our table.

With outlandish lawsuits, a botched IPO, and a detailed social record of historic world events, 2012 will be remembered as a year of extreme highs and lows in social media. Here are the top 10 social stories that defined the year.

The once great all-purpose social network Myspace is apparently seeking to raise a $50 million round of funding that will be used to further revamp the site into a streaming music competitor on par with Spotify and Pandora.

Remember when Facebook only showed three ads on each page? And when the company moved to four in 2010? More recently, the company has been at six, and I’m currently seeing seven, but Facebook is now testing up to 10 ads per page … and I’m thinking of some ancient history.

The average Google+ user only spends an average of three minutes per month on the social network, while MySpace, LinkedIn, and Twitter are all seeing more time spent per user each month, according to research firm comScore.

It’s alive! MySpace, once the king of the social networking space, has been bleeding users for years. Now it’s set to report a million new users have signed up since December, says the New York Times. (Maybe new investor Justin Timberlake’s experience acting in the “The Social Network” is rubbing off on Myspace.)

Fashion-focused media company StyleCaster has raised $1 million in a new bridge round from investors including Zynga chief mobile officer David Ko and Zynga board member and former MySpace CEO Owen Van Natta. The move will help the startup make further inroads with Silicon Alley and Silicon Valley.

Former MySpace chief executive Mike Jones announced a new incubator he calls Science today, which he describes as a technology studio for startups looking to grow in Los Angeles. But is Jones giving past MySpace executives a first pass at the money?